Laureate Education, Inc. (LAUR) Stock Price & How to Invest

Laureate Education (Nasdaq: LAUR) runs a network of private universities and higher-education institutions concentrated in two markets, Mexico (brands including UVM and UNITEC) and Peru (UPC, UPN, and the CIBERTEC technical institute). After years of selling off a sprawling global portfolio, the company reshaped itself into a streamlined operator focused on these two countries, where a growing middle class and limited public-university capacity drive demand for affordable degree and technical programs. Total enrollment sits near 500,000 students, and revenue is earned largely in Mexican pesos and Peruvian soles, which makes reported results sensitive to foreign-exchange swings.

The investment picture is one of steady organic growth paired with disciplined capital returns. Full-year 2025 revenue rose about 9% to roughly $1.70 billion with adjusted EBITDA around $510 million, and management guided 2026 toward meaningfully higher revenue and EBITDA alongside modest margin expansion. Laureate carries low net debt and has used buybacks and dividends to return cash to shareholders, so the stock is effectively a bet on enrollment gains, tuition pricing, campus expansion, and the currencies of two emerging markets holding up.

Because nearly all revenue is earned in Mexican pesos and Peruvian soles, a weakening of those currencies against the US dollar can compress reported results even when local operations grow. The company is heavily concentrated in just two countries, so political, economic, or regulatory shifts in either market carry outsized weight. For-profit and private higher education is politically sensitive and exposed to changes in tuition rules, accreditation, or public funding. Enrollment can be cyclical and tied to household finances, and competition from other private and public institutions is intense. Seasonality also produces uneven quarterly results, including a first-quarter net loss driven by academic calendars.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Laureate Education, Inc.'s investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (TTM): ~$1.75B
• Adjusted EBITDA (FY2025): ~$510M
• Market cap: ~$5.1B
• P/E (trailing): ~17x
• EV/EBITDA: ~10x
• 2026 revenue guidance: ~$1.89B to $1.90B

Laureate trades at roughly a mid-teens earnings multiple and around 10x EV/EBITDA, valuations that sit below many US-listed education peers, reflecting its emerging-market currency exposure. The company reaffirmed 2026 revenue guidance near $1.9 billion and lifted its adjusted EPS outlook after buybacks. Q1 2026 revenue grew about 15% year over year to roughly $273 million, though the first quarter carries a seasonal net loss.

There are three common ways to get LAUR exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic basket, so LAUR sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the basket route. Describe a thesis where LAUR fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

Laureate is a focused, cash-generative Latin American university operator, and the investment picture hinges on continued enrollment growth and currency stability in Mexico and Peru.

Whether LAUR is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is LAUR a buy?, and where the stock could go from here in the LAUR stock forecast.

For income investors, whether LAUR pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does LAUR pay a dividend?